


Eraser Marks

by humanagain



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Angst, Gen, i am high key projecting im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-24
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-09-01 20:58:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8637820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humanagain/pseuds/humanagain
Summary: Adrien's hands are sore. Graphite is smudged down the side of his right hand, which is cramping. He doesn't put his pencil down, but rather, he grips it tighter. He needs to solve this.[...]Adrien is losing control.





	

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to [sadrien](sadrien.tumblr.com) for being there for me today. love u lots <3 
> 
> anyway this is me projecting onto adrien agreste. a lot. im sorry. 
> 
> enjoy, i guess?

Broken pencils are scattered around the desk. Some of them are missing a point, with wood shards splayed from their tips at awkward angles. Some of them are broken in half. Every single eraser is completely worn down. 

Adrien's hands are sore. Graphite is smudged down the side of his right hand, which is cramping. He doesn't put his pencil down, but rather grips it tighter. He  _ needs  _ to solve this. 

He's always loved to watch as the solutions unfold on the paper before him. He's loved the feeling of graphite on graph paper.  He's loved how, even when he's had no way to change the direction in which his life was spiraling, math had always been a something he had control over. 

Adrien uses graph paper because it’s neat. It’s an easy, clean way to keep his work and his train of thought organized. He likes how the boxes kept everything compartmentalized, keep his lines straight and spacing even. 

But this? This is  _ messy.  _

And Adrien is losing control. 

His writing is smudged and the white is tinged gray from eraser marks. It was covered in scribbles, teardrops, and small rips in the paper from pressing down too hard. 

Numbers made sense to him. Words do not. He didn't understand what the question was asking. He doesn't understand what was going wrong. He tries to think about the problem, about the numbers, but everything is drowned out by a resounding  _ I need to be better.  _

It was the one test question he'd gotten wrong. Marinette had tried to reassure him. 

“It’s just one problem, it's okay!” she'd said. Adrien laughs dryly to himself at the memory. She’s so perfect in her lack of a need to be. 

Because that’s just it. It's just one problem. One problem on top of a million others.

This is just the one he should know how to solve. 

His life and this one question have too many variables and not enough given information. Everything is moving too fast, and he can't find anything to relate the rate to. 

He rewrites the givens over and over, trying to form something out of too little. His pencil point breaks. 

So he reaches for another. 

**Author's Note:**

> my tenses are kind of shit but its mostly intentional?  
> if i'm gonna be sad i'm at least going to be artsy about it
> 
> i'm on tumblr at [zoenightstars](zoenightstars.tumblr.com)!


End file.
